Advanced Auto Trends: Driving Success Through Training & Transformation with GST Michigan Works!

GST Michigan Works! is very pleased to have partnered with Advanced Auto Trends (AAT) for many years, including STTF and Going Pro Talent Fund applications. We have assisted them with On-the-Job Training contracts, Incumbent Worker Training projects, and Youth Work Experience. AAT has consistently supported our Manufacturing Forums, Advisory Councils and more. It has been an extreme pleasure to watch them transform with new technology and grow their customer base by leaps and bounds. Their phenomenal growth has been a direct result of their focus on continued, purposeful, and intensive training. The incorporation of new internal sensor technology and automation would not have been remotely possible without their corresponding increase in knowledge and skill.

Advanced Auto Trends is on a continuous journey of improvement and transformation with GSTMW and the Going PRO Talent Fund (GPTF) playing a massive role from the beginning. In the process of growing their company, they are also growing people and careers. 

As the company has grown, many of AAT’s staff have advanced their careers or supervisory positions so the press need for Fiscal Year 2023 was to ensure their success as they grow into their new roles. As companies expand and grow in multiple ways, they will always need to go back to the basics to reinforce effective maintenance, and good management practices at some point. The training coursework included: team excellence, train the trainer, conducting performance reviews, continuous improvement, value stream mapping, and 5S. Advanced Auto Trends also needs to improve the effectiveness of their Maintenance and Repair department. Their team members completed training in hydraulic blueprint reading, calibration of the Van Dorn injection molding machines, and sewing machine maintenance. 

The monetary value of their FY23 GPTF grant was $29,211. As they put these skills into practice, they are already seeing an improved effectiveness and performance. Advanced Auto Trends is already putting their training into practice in very specific and practical means, and the enhanced management and supervisory skills will be felt in both tangible and intangible ways long into the future.

Ken Surbrook, Engineering Manager, shared, “The class that has been used the most is the maintenance hydraulic print reading class or the calibration class. We decided to focus the class on reading the Van Dorn prints since there are 17 Van Dorn Machines in both molding facilities, Oxford and Snover.  The Oxford facility has used the training to dive into a couple of their Van Dorn machines that have inconsistent hydraulic pressures.  By using the print, they identified the two valves that might be the problem and replaced them one at a time and corrected the problem on the first valve. In the Snover facility we had a Van Dorn press go down on the third shift and when first shift came in our third shift maintenance tech had pulled out the print and identified what parts were necessary to get the press back up and running.”